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Draft law to set up new Anti-Corruption High Court to be presented to Cabinet
View(s):A draft law to establish a new Anti-Corruption High Court will be presented to Cabinet within the next two weeks, sources said. The High Court will be empowered to hold day-to-day trials through three benches each comprising three judges of the High Court in respect of financial crimes, corruption, defrauding the state of its assets and revenue. Other offences to be heard before the new court will include criminal breach of trust, misappropriation, money laundering, terrorist financing, organised crime and offences against public property.
A Cabinet memorandum to set up the new High Court was presented to Cabinet by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in November last year.
The memorandum states that owing to the enormous backlog of cases now blocking the court system, cases relating to financial crimes and other such offences cannot be heard expeditiously and that this was having an undesirable effect on the entire community with many of the perpetrators at large, having been enlarged on bail or otherwise.
Offences under certain Acts and Laws which the court has jurisdiction to hear, will be specified in a schedule to the new legislation and cases will be referred to the court by the direction of the Chief Justice of his own volition considering the nature of the offence or the request of the Attorney General. The CJ will nominate the judges.
The trial will be held either upon an indictment or upon information exhibited by the AG while there will be one appeal from an order of this Court to the Supreme Court. The High Court will be established under Article 105 (1) (c) of the Constitution.